API reference
Instagram Hashtag Search API
Find indexed public Instagram posts and Reels for a hashtag, with or without #. media_type=all includes both; reels restricts to Reels. Photo-only filtering is not supported. Index coverage is incomplete and can lag new posts. Continue only with the returned cursor.
Endpoint
/v1/instagram/search-hashtaglive · proven3 creditsParameters
Query parameters
Useful optional inputs
date_posted— Choose the documented source window for recent results; coverage can still be incomplete.The normal endpoint price applies; this does not buy a complete date archive.
media_type— Restrict returned content to the supported media types for your task.Filtering can return fewer results; the normal endpoint price still applies.
dry_run— Read a free estimate before fetching sources or scheduling paid work.Zero credits; cache status and availability are snapshots rather than guarantees.
| Name | Required | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
hashtag | yes | Hashtag without the #. | makeup |
date_posted | no | Restrict by post date, e.g. last-week. Accepted values: last-hour, last-day, last-week, last-month, last-year. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | — |
media_type | no | Search public posts and Reels (all), or only Reels (reels). Accepted values: all, reels. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. Photo-only filtering is not supported. | — |
cursor | no | Opaque cursor from the previous page. | — |
dry_run | no | Read a zero-credit estimate without fetching sources, running AI, or reserving credits. Cache status is a snapshot, not a guarantee at execution. Accepted values: 1, 0, true, false. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | 1 |
judgments | no | Add bounded AI labels to eligible returned records (default on). off preserves the original data shape. Unclassified records remain present; labels depend on evidence, time, capacity and the existing request budget. No label surcharge. Accepted values: on, off. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | on |
label | no | Set none to disable labels; default enables the endpoint’s label set. Equivalent to judgments=off. Accepted values: default, none. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | none |
label_evidence | no | Include exact supporting sentences and zero-based sentence indexes when a label has validated evidence. No extra charge or change to decisions. Accepted values: 1, 0, true, false. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | 1 |
exclude | no | Optionally remove confidently labelled engagement bait. Uncertain and unclassified records stay; removed IDs and an owner-bound recall reference are returned. Accepted values: engagement_bait. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | engagement_bait |
fit | no | Use goal to replace confidently irrelevant records with recall stubs. Keeps first, last, relevant and uncertain records; preserves order. Full evidence is stored for 24 hours when available. Accepted values: goal. Case, spaces, hyphens and underscores are interchangeable. | goal |
goal | no | Required with fit=goal: describe the task in at most 600 characters. Supplied text is task context, never permission to act on posts. | Find concrete product complaints |
tokens | no | Optional soft response target for fit=goal, 256–32000. Safety and evidence retention take priority, so the returned result may exceed it. | 4000 |
Examples
Make the request
curl "https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/instagram/search-hashtag?hashtag=makeup" \ -H "x-api-key: mn_your_key_here"
TypeScript
const key = process.env.MONOCRAWL_API_KEY;
if (!key) throw new Error('Set MONOCRAWL_API_KEY on your server.');
const res = await fetch(
"https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/instagram/search-hashtag?hashtag=makeup",
{ headers: { "x-api-key": key } },
);
const body = await res.json();
if (!body.success) {
// one error shape for every endpoint — see /docs/errors
throw new Error(`${body.error.type}: ${body.error.message}`);
}
console.log(body.data, "credits left:", body.credits_remaining);Python
import os
import requests
res = requests.get(
"https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/instagram/search-hashtag?hashtag=makeup",
headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["MONOCRAWL_API_KEY"]},
timeout=60,
)
body = res.json()
if not body["success"]:
# one error shape for every endpoint — see /docs/errors
raise RuntimeError(f"{body['error']['type']}: {body['error']['message']}")
print(body["data"], "credits left:", body["credits_remaining"])Response
Response fields and example
This example is illustrative, not a captured live response. Variable-cost operations may settle a charge different from the list price below. A successful response puts the platform payload in data and reports the exact credits used, remaining balance, request id and cache status beside it.
{
"success": true,
"platform": "instagram",
"endpoint": "/v1/instagram/search-hashtag",
"data": {
"cursor": null,
"dropped": 0,
"items": [
{
"author": {
"avatar_url": "https://example.com/example",
"handle": "example",
"id": "example",
"name": "example",
"verified": false
},
"caption": "example",
"carousel": [],
"comments": 0,
"created_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00Z",
"display_url": "https://example.com/example",
"has_audio": false,
"id": "example",
"image": "https://example.com/example",
"is_ad": false,
"is_paid_partnership": false,
"likes": 0,
"location": {
"id": "example",
"latitude": 0,
"longitude": 0,
"name": "example"
},
"media_urls": [
"example"
],
"platform": "example",
"product_type": "example",
"shortcode": "example",
"thumbnail_url": "https://example.com/example",
"url": "https://example.com/example",
"video_url": "https://example.com/example"
}
]
},
"credits_used": 3,
"credits_remaining": 99,
"request_id": "req_…",
"cached": false
}The example is illustrative and shows a documented subset of data. The fields below are optional across supported sources; nullable fields can also be absent. Preserve unknown values and accept additional fields.
Schema basis: reviewed response shaper. See schema coverage and validation limits.
Download the data JSON Schema. Validate response.data, not the whole envelope. A valid shape does not establish that every field or source record was returned.
| Field inside data | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
cursor | string | null | Opaque next-page token; pass it back unchanged. Null does not prove complete history. |
dropped | number | null | Optional dropped supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items | array | null | Returned records. Source coverage and completeness vary. |
items[].author | object | null | Public author information supplied with this record. |
items[].author.avatar_url | string | null | Optional avatar url supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].author.handle | string | null | Optional handle supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].author.id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve the supplied type and exact value. |
items[].author.name | string | null | Optional name supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].author.verified | boolean | null | Optional verified supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].caption | string | null | Optional caption supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].carousel | array | null | Source array was empty in the reviewed captures; item fields remain unspecified. |
items[].comments | number | null | Optional comments supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].created_at | string | null | Source creation time, not the API retrieval time. |
items[].display_url | string | null | Optional display url supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].has_audio | boolean | null | Optional has audio supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve the supplied type and exact value. |
items[].image | string | null | Optional image supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].is_ad | boolean | null | Optional is ad supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].is_paid_partnership | boolean | null | Optional is paid partnership supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].likes | number | null | Optional likes supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].location | object | null | Optional location supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].location.id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve the supplied type and exact value. |
items[].location.latitude | number | null | Optional latitude supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].location.longitude | number | null | Optional longitude supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].location.name | string | null | Optional name supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].media_urls | array | null | Optional media urls supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].platform | string | null | Optional platform supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].product_type | string | null | Optional product type supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].shortcode | string | null | Optional shortcode supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].thumbnail_url | string | null | Optional thumbnail url supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
items[].video_url | string | null | Optional video url supplied by this operation. Null means unknown. |
items[].audio_cluster_id | string | null | Exact Instagram audio cluster identifier, grouping uploads of a sound. Can feed instagram/audio-reels; unknown remains null. |
items[].music | object | null | Nested response fields; optional unless explicitly documented. |
items[].music.id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve its exact string value; do not convert large IDs to numbers. |
items[].music.title | string | null | Source sound title. |
items[].music.author | string | null | Source artist display name. |
items[].music.is_original | boolean | null | Source original-audio flag; null when absent. |
items[].music.audio_cluster_id | string | null | Exact Instagram audio cluster identifier, grouping uploads of a sound. Can feed instagram/audio-reels; unknown remains null. |
items[].music.audio_asset_id | string | null | Exact source identifier for this audio asset. Different uploads may share an audio cluster. |
items[].music.duration_s | number | null | Audio asset duration in seconds, separate from reel duration. |
items[].music.is_explicit | boolean | null | Source explicit-content flag for the audio asset. |
items[].music.is_trending | boolean | null | Source trending-in-Reels flag supplied with this reel. Time-sensitive; null or absent is unknown, not false. |
items[].music.canonical_id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve its exact string value; do not convert large IDs to numbers. |
items[].music.artist_id | string | null | Source identifier. Preserve its exact string value; do not convert large IDs to numbers. |
items[].music.author_handle | string | null | Public artist handle when supplied. |
items[].music.spotify_track_id | string | null | Spotify track identifier supplied by the source. |
items[].music.spotify_url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
items[].music.is_licensed | boolean | null | Explicit source licensed-audio flag; not a licence granted to the caller. |
items[].music.licensed_music_subtype | string | null | Source music classification, not a grant of usage rights. |
items[].music.allows_saving | boolean | null | Source saving flag. |
items[].music.cover_url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
items[].music.audio_url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
items[].music.preview_url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
items[].music.play_url | string | null | Original source URL when supplied. |
_warnings | array | Collection limitations or component warnings. Read before interpreting coverage. |
Optional fields reviewed from preserved successful responses. Additive fields and source variations remain allowed; validate the fields your workflow requires.
The example is invented and illustrates types only; zero and empty values are not claims about a real result.
Audio cluster/asset IDs and music metadata are optional source fields already supplied with a reel. Trending is time-sensitive; a missing signal is unknown. Returned page size does not establish the sound’s total reel count.
Failures use the typed error envelope. A confirmed uncharged or refunded failure reports zero; a pending reconciliation can report an unknown charge. Read credits_used and error.details.billing_status, and keep request_id for recovery. Response contract · Error reference